Update gradle, may need Android Studio settings change, see below

If you get a message about disabling "Configuration on demand" in gradle.properties,
do the following:

Open File -> Settings -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Compiler
and uncheck "Configure on demand".

No messing with gradle.properties necessary.

build.gradle

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ buildscript {
         google()
     }
     dependencies {
-        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.3'
+        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.4'
 
         // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
         // in the individual module build.gradle files

gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties

@@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.4-all.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.9-all.zip